Starring Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Peter Lawford, and Jimmy Durante
Directed by Henry Koster
Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Ralph Freed
During and directly after World War II, there was a burst of nostalgia for simpler times and less tumultuous eras. We already saw one example of how the musicals from this time celebrated the past in One Sunday Afternoon. MGM in particular did many musicals set in the immediate past, especially after the roaring success of Meet Me In St. Louis in 1944. They were also fond of musicals featuring opera or operetta stars with operatic music and sequences from operas. This one combines both those approaches into one story of a young woman who shocks her family by her choice of career. How does this turn-of-the-twentieth-century tale of class differences look now? Let's begin in Boston, as the ancient relatives of Miss Martha Chandler (Allyson) plays the piano, and find out...
The Story: Martha and her Aunt Jennifer (Isobel Elsom) and blustery Uncle Johnathan (Harry Hayden) rush quickly to New York when someone at the party claims to have seen Martha's sister Abigail (Kathryn Grayson) singing in the dive bar The Golden Rooster. Yes, she does perform numbers there with its proprietor Spike (Jimmy Durante) under the name "High C Susie." She wanted to become an opera singer, but the money her stingy uncle sent her barely paid for piano lessons. Working at the bar is her way of earning cash for lessons.
Spike sneaks her into a show featuring opera star Olstrom (Lauriz Melichor), but she accidentally ruins the show, to Olstrom's horror and her family's delight. Martha stays on to convince her sister to give up singing and marry the handsome art patron Lawrence Tyburt Patterson Jr. Not only does Lawrence fall for her instead, but after he gets Abigail an audition with his own stuffy parents, Martha has to convince them that she's the one singing at the Bowery to give her sister a chance.
The Song and Dance: The cast and the early 1900's atmosphere are the thing here. Allyson and Grayson both have a great deal of fun, with Allyson playing against type as the sheltered society girl who faints at the mere sight of bare skin. Ben Blue has a smaller part, playing a butler who can only remember things when he's drunk, but he does manage to get a couple of nice gags. He's especially funny in the very beginning, when he's ardently pursuing Abigail. Durante has a couple of nice moments claiming he knows people - including Olstrom - to get Abigail into the opera. The costumes and sets also do quite well recreating both the downtown and uptown New York in 1900.
Oh, and I really appreciate that they didn't try to match Abigail with anyone, which a lot of musicals would have done. Her real interest is in a career, not romance.
Favorite Number: The movie kicks off with Durante introducing himself and Grayson and greeting a drunk and rowdy house in his own "Hello, Hello." That goes directly into Abigail's number as she more-or-less explains her predicament in the stripper chorus number "There are Two Sides to Ev'ry Girl." Durante gets a second number with Grayson, "Down By the Ocean," as he and Abigail spoof early 1900's courtship and Martha gets a look at her sister's (relatively) brief bathing costume. Martha tries to perform with the chorus girls in her brief costume without ending up fainting onstage as they sing about the men they'll meet "After the Show."
The Lohengrin opera sequence starts out with Melichor in great voice as he performs before the dancing crowds of admiring peasants...but ends in chaos, thanks to Abigail's attempts to be noticed. The Marie Antoinette opera was written for the film and ends it in spectacular fashion as Abigail, in her gigantic ruffled gown and high wig, proves to Olstrom that she can, indeed, sing very well when she's not trying to show off.
What I Don't Like: First of all, Lawford is basically a block of wood as the handsome art patron who nearly turns both sisters away. He's obviously not happy to be there and is dull as dishwater in a badly-written role. There's also the whole story revolving around how notoriously stuffy Boston was still considered to be in 1946...something that many people won't get today. Lawrence and Abigail's family come off as less well-meaning and more obnoxious and cold. Frankly, with a family like that, no wonder Abigail ran off to the big city.
And I'm a bit surprised this one isn't in Technicolor. This is the kind of thing that screams for color, especially from MGM in this era.
The Big Finale: The cast and some good numbers gives this one a bit of the zip that One Sunday Afternoon lacked, despite the dated story. Fans of the stars, opera, and musicals of the 1940's will want to check it out.
Home Media: Currently DVD-only from the Warner Archives.
No comments:
Post a Comment